LITTLE EGRET AT GOETHAL'S BRIDGE POND, STATEN ISLAND,NEW YORK

摘要

We identified and photographed a hatching-year Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) on Staten Island on 8 July 2017. The bird remained only one more day, to 9 July, but was closely studied and photographed by multiple observers during these two days. It fed with a number of Snowy Egrets (E. thula) and Little Blue Herons (E. caerulea) during its stay. There is only one prior substantiated occurrence of Little Egret in New York State, at Gardiner County Park, Suffolk County, 20-21 May 2015 (Morris 2015),but there has been a substantial increase in records along the United States' Atlantic coast during the last 20 years, probably reflecting colonization of, population growth within, and vagrancy from, the Caribbean.